Martin Dunsdon - Tenor Sax 1

I'm from Wells-Next-The-Sea, Norfolk originally, but my formative years were spent in Norwich. My musical tastes were formed by listening to my Dad’s big band 78s and ‘reel-to-reel’ recordings. At first I dabbled in a bit of 'boogie woogie' piano before falling for the sound of Lester Young’s tenor saxophone. When I was 16, and after a long summer spent fruit-picking, I managed to scrape together the cash for an old ‘Adolphe’ Sax (yes, it should have been in a museum!). Six months later I played my first dance at a local holiday camp – no more fruit-picking for me!

At 18 I went to Salford (Manchester really) to study ‘Electroacoustics’, but after two years it was obvious that life was taking a more musical detour: My first long-term gig was with Eric Delaney and I have to admit that I made no end of mistakes (and not just musical ones!) - I also had to play 'The Pink Panther' every day, sometimes twice, I became absolutely sick of it! Eventually Eric ‘cut the band down’ and there followed some interesting (i.e badly-paid) ‘werke’ in Germany, Belgium and Djibouti (where?) plus a couple of cruising stints in the South Pacific and the Caribbean.

For a while I played in a busy Saxophone Quartet from Birmingham called 'Saxtet', before going on the road in the backing band for Edwin Starr. I moved to London in 1988 and continued to 'freelance' until joining the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 2001. Along the way I've worked with Al Martino, Jack Jones, Le Glenn Miller Memorial Orchestre! (in France), Stacey Kent, the Syd Lawrence, Michael Garrick, Joe Loss, Andy Prior, Herb Miller/John Miller, Jeff Hooper and Freddy Staff Orchestras besides 'depping' on 'Chicago' and ‘The Rat Pack’ in the West End. Last year I played for the New York City Ballet at The Coliseum but when I get the chance I still love to go out to play jazz ‘standards’ in a small club or pub somewhere ............. as long as I don't have to play the 'Pink Panther'!